Fun at the pool

The first summer that we were in Yuma, we were living in a condo that had a pool in the complex. Last summer when we bought our house, we thought about buying a pass to the local community pool, but we decided not to. And we regretted it!! There's not much else one can do in 125 degrees! So this summer, we knew we were going to get the pool pass. And we're SO glad we did!

Yuma recently opened up a new aquatic center that is really awesome. They've got a kiddie area that has a 1 foot deep pool area that has a jungle gym set up with a few slides, water spouts that spray water, etc. They've got a water slide for the older kids/adults. They've got an Olympic sized pool for actual swimming. And they've got covered grassy areas, which is seriously awesome.

We've been spending at least 3 days a week there, and it's just been a blast. Derk and I are usually busy swimming with the kids, but we've been able to sit out a few times near the kiddie area, watching the kids play while we play cards or read. So much fun!

Here are some pictures I snapped today!

I'll have to remember to take more pictures next time we go. The kids are all getting so great at swimming! Kyrie has learned how to dive (both from the side of the pool and on the diving board!), Asher has finally learned to swim, and Cambria is getting more and more comfortable with the water. I briefly mentioned in my Idaho vacation post about how I decided Bri's fear of the water was going to end. So you have a better understanding, this girl was literally terrified of the water, for no apparent reason. She was fine up until about 18 months old, and then she suddenly hated the water (including bath time!). While up in Idaho, I decided she just had to get over it because we're all big swimmers. So she went from flat out refusing to even put a toe into the pool 3 weeks ago to completely submerging her entire body under the water (including her head!) today! We're pretty proud of her! :)

Wordless Wednesday

(I know this is supposed to be a wordless post, but I have to add a quick note here! That second picture with Asher kissing Bri was NOT prompted by me in the slightest!! GAH! Can you even stand the sweetness?!?!)

Ward camp out

This weekend was our ward's camp out. They did the camp out in the Laguna Mountains, which are in eastern San Diego, about 2.5 hours away. It was so nice to escape the heat. Someone mentioned that it was nearly 40 degrees cooler up there than it was in Yuma! That's pretty insane.

We arrived at the camp site, set up the tent, and headed over for a carne asada dinner. It was pretty tasty (Hanna, it wasn't even close to as good as your dad's, though!!!!!!). There were some games, skits, and dessert. Then it was time for bed.

That was THE worst night's sleep I think I've ever had. Derk agrees. Our pump to our air mattress conked out a little shy of filling it completely full. So it wasn't nearly firm enough to be comfortable. Add 2 adults and 2 kids onto the air mattress, and it's a recipe for disaster. Asher and Bri both had to sleep right next to me, so I was squished in the middle of both of them. Derk is the heaviest, so the whole mattress was tilted towards him, making everyone roll that way. There was also someone snoring louder than I thought humanly possible and a child hacking up a lung all night long. So yeah, not a good night at all. Luckily we figured out that our kids can sleep pretty much anywhere, even under less-than-ideal conditions. So at least they slept well! Until 5am, that is. All 3 kids were up at 5am. Blah.

Since we were up bright and early this morning (I'm trying to be optimistic here, lol!), we decided to take advantage of the day and took the kids exploring before breakfast. I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures of anything else the previous day, so I made sure I took some while we were exploring.

The scenery was spectacular! As we were walking down a trail, suddenly we rounded a corner and came into a huge meadow. I've never seen anything like it. It was amazing. And not just because of the beauty. To all my fellow Twilight fans: I fully admit that my Twilight side got ridiculously giddy at the sight of a meadow, which nobody but you can understand!!! I didn't mention that part (about the meadow) to Derk, though. ;-) He would have been sure I was all kinds of crazy. Perhaps I am...

We headed for home shortly after breakfast. I had homework to do, and we were invited over to a friend's house for dinner and a pool party. So it was a short trip, but I'm really glad we went.

A fun-filled weekend in St. George

Like I said in the post about my Idaho trip, we went over to St. George first to meet up with Derk's mom and to see some family there before I flew out of Las Vegas. We arrived in St. George Friday evening and stayed the weekend with Derk's grandma. We had a pretty fun time!

I didn't end up taking pictures, other than when we were swimming. We spent all day on Saturday hiking in Zion National Park, which was quite an adventure, to say the least. I wish I'd remembered to take some pictures once we finally arrived at the emerald pools, but it was just too crazy. Here are the pictures of our swimming adventures, though.

We also spent a lot of time at the pool in Grandma Dean's neighborhood, but we were too busy splashing to stop and get any pictures. It was a jam-packed weekend, but it was sure fun!

My Idaho vacation

I was given the awesome opportunity to head up to Idaho for 10 days to visit family. The original plan was for Derk to stay with the kids while I went, but we ended up changing it so I'd take Cambria with me. We all drove over to St. George to meet up with Derk's mom for a few days, and then Bri and I flew from Vegas to Idaho.

Speaking of Vegas, that airport is GINORMOUS! It literally took us 1.5 hours to get from the van to our gate, and we had to ride a tram to get to our gate! It was in a completely separate building! So there's me, 4 bags, a car seat, and a 3 year old, trying to navigate through this honking airport. That was fun, let me tell you. We arrived there 2 hours before our flight time and ended up getting to the gate a mere 15 minutes before boarding began. Bri was amazing, though, and stayed by me the entire time. The hard part was juggling all those silly bags! I was determined to only do carry-ons to avoid paying the $35 per pag per way fee. Next time, I'm either not bringing a 3 year old with me, or I'm packing extremely light.

Oh, and a few words to airport security peeps. #1 - If you want things done a certain way, try posting a note somewhere so passengers like me, who don't fly often, know what to do and can avoid getting chewed out! Apparently I was supposed to remove my laptop from the bag and run it through security on its own. But that wasn't posted anywhere, so how was I supposed to know? Then the security jerks gave me a supremely hard time and acted like it was the biggest inconvenience in the world to walk the 10 feet to run my laptop through the machine again. And #2 - Try being gentle to little children instead of growling at them. That way, they won't be deathly afraid of walking through the metal detector towards you without their mother. Kthanks.

Anyway. Our days were jam-packed full of fun! We did so many fun things -- LOTS of playing with cousins, family dinners, shopping, going to parks, going to the Kroc center, hitting some favorite restaurants, going out for ice cream, etc. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves! :) I didn't want to fuss with taking my nice camera through the airport, so some of these aren't the best quality. Oh, and you can click on the pictures to make them larger!

Here's Cambria at the airport and then on-board the plane, excited to be on our way to Idaho. Unfortunately the novelty of being on an airplane wore off very quickly. ;-) Luckily I was able to make her take a nap, and she slept the second half of the flight.

We loved hanging out with my sister Katie and her daughter Jonni! We did a lot of shopping, played at their house, watched Jonni's dance class, went to the park, and just had a fabulous time together. These girlies are only 2 months apart and are double the fun...but also double the trouble!! They gave us quite a run for our money at the Valley Mall one day, and we ended up paying for them to stay an hour at that in-mall daycare place so we could have some peace and quiet. They had a blast, and we regained our sanity! ;-)

My mom took Jonathan, Cambria and I to the Kroc Center to play at the water park, and we had such a fun time! It was there that I decided Bri's 2 year long fear of the water was going to end, and I forced her to get in. She LOVED it and had the BEST time!

We had several yummy meals at my mom's house throughout the time we were visiting! She made a tostada dinner one night with James, Abigail, Logan and Noah, Jonathan and Hanna (Jonathan's girlfriend, but she's considered another sister in my mind!), Caleb, my Aunt Catherine, and Cambria and I. Then we went for an eggs Benedict brunch another day with just my mom, Aunt Catherine, Cambria and myself. We got to eat outside, and it was so, so yummy! And then there was a huge spaghetti dinner the night before we flew home with James, Abigail, Logan and Noah, Jonathan and Hanna, Caleb, and then my brother Nathan and his girlfriend Jessica.

After the spaghetti dinner while Bri took a nap, I played a belly-busting game of Apples to Apples with Abby, Jonathan, Caleb, and Hanna. We all had way too much fun playing that game. I'll never forget the laughs we shared! Such fun. "My bedroom" will always crack me up from now on! ;-)

There were 2 absolutely gorgeous days during our stay where it was around 80 degrees. One of the days, we (my mom, siblings, nephews, Bri and I) decided to go to a park in Post Falls to play and see the geese. It was such a beautiful day, and it was a great time to enjoy being outside and being together.

Speaking of the weather, pretty much the moment I got off the plane, I had some major allergies going on. The "funny" part is that I've NEVER had allergies before in my entire life, so I don't know what was up with the allergens! Also, I completely forgot how fickle the temperatures are. We had 70's one day, pouring rain and 50's for a few days, it would jump up to 80 for a few days, then back down to the low 60's or high 50's. About 2 days after the above park pictures, Cambria and I had our lunch in front of Derk's parent's fire place and didn't leave that spot almost all day. It was 49 degrees that day!! In JUNE! I mean, I still detest living in the desert, but at least I know what the weather is going to be every single day!

While we were there, we were able to celebrate my nephew Logan's 4th birthday! On his actual birthday, we all went out for ice cream. Logan and Cambria were SO cute. My sister's husband James had them laughing hysterically!

We stayed at Derk's parent's house, and the first morning we were there, Bri ran into the kitchen to see what kind of cereal to eat for breakfast. She saw Lucky Charms in the cupboard and was ridiculously excited. And these pictures are to show why we don't buy Lucky Charms (or its equivalent) at our house! ;-) (just in case you can't tell, she's picking out and eating only the marshmallows...)

Here are a few more cute pictures of these cute kiddos -- Noah, Jonni, and Cambria.

During one of our shopping trips, we went to Kohl's. Cambria announced she had to go potty, so off we went. We went into the family bathroom, and she was fascinated by the fact that there were 2 potties -- one for Mommies and one for kids! She loved it so much that she wanted me to take her picture by the little potty. :-)

One morning I was getting ready to take my shower, and Bri said she didn't want to shower with me and wanted to play with Mike (Jessica's fiancee) instead. Mike said that was a great idea, so I went back down and got ready for the day. When I came back up, I found them playing happily and having a fabulous time! Cambria sure loves her (future) Uncle Mike!

We were so busy that Cambria was constantly left completely exhausted by the end of the day!

I had the BEST time and loved every moment of being with you all! As much as I miss everyone, it's also wonderful to be home, though. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can see each other again! Thanks for all the laughs and all the fun times. And thank you to my 2 moms for making it possible for us to fly up for a visit. I'll never forget this trip!!

Pretty in headbands

This morning as I was busy doing dishes, Cambria came into the kitchen to show me what she'd done. It was too cute not to take a picture! I wonder if this girl will ever grow out of her love for these cats? I thought the novelty would wear off shortly after we adopted Isis in 2008, but she's just as obsessed now as she was back then! And luckily the cats are extremely good sports (as if they have a choice!). Today it was Isis' turn to be tortured.....uh, I mean loved. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday

Asher's t-ball award ceremony

Asher's t-ball award ceremony was today. It was pretty disorganized, but it was still cute. He was so excited about his trophy! The coolest part is that you spin the baseball, and the ball starts flashing red and blue lights. He thinks it's super cool.

The ceremony was on a real baseball field, which the kids all thought was super cool. Their games have been at a sports complex that had 6 fields for the younger kids. The field where the ceremony was is a full-sized field. Here are the announcers calling the Blue Bees up to accept their awards, and then there are 2 pictures on the side of the team walking up. In the picture on the bottom, Asher is the one right in front of the boy wearing the white shirt.

And here are some shots of Asher and of his team after the ceremony.

We're glad the season is over, but it was sure fun!